The available literature establishes that thresholds for taste decline with age. However, the decline is of small magnitude and in itself does not adequately explain the problems with taste perception, food palatability and food preference observed in the elderly. The present proposal used a different approach to these problems. The existence and the nature of age-related changes in the chemical senses will be investigated using non-threshold techniques. A variety of psychophysical methods will be employed: magnitude estimation, cross-modality matching, forced-choice magnitude matching, identification, and preference. Subjects will be ambulatory, non-institutionalized persons with no hospitalizations in the preceding 12 months. They will be drawn from one of two groups: 18-26 years, and 65 or more years of age. The present research will then explore the effect of age on (1) suprathreshold intensity scaling of simple chemosensory stimuli, (2) preferences for simple taste or odor stimuli, (3) relative taste intensity of mixture components, (4) the factors contributing to the ability to identify foods, and (5) the taste of water. A more complete understanding of chemosensory perception and psychophysics in the elderly may suggest methods for improving taste perception, food palatability and preference, and hence, dietary intake and nutritional status in the geriatric population.